2012: Year Of The Level

Happy New Year! Doesn’t really feel any different than last year did, but we’re only a smidgen into things, so don’t give up just yet. I hope any holidays you celebrated over the past few weeks were safe, warm, and happy, wherever life may find you at this time.

Now at some point during the first week of December I got this brainwave. An epiphany, if you will. I could do something WoW related for the new year! My first thought was “12 in 12.” As in, one of every race to 85. It had a nice ring to it and played off the “Make Ten” that I’ve seen a few folks do. It was a great idea. But the problem, for me, is that I tend to take ideas like that and turn them into the absurd. So…where was I? Oh, right. “12 in 12.” It was a reasonably attainable goal, but not long after that idea came to me there was another. Bigger. Better. Insane. So of course, it’s exactly what I’m going to do.

That’s right, my goal before 2012 is over is to have two thousand and twelve levels between all my characters -however many that may end up being when all is said and done (told you it was insane). What’s more, is I’d love to have company on the way! This is my invitation to you to join the 2012 in 2012 Challenge. Before you think me crazy (or perhaps crazier), consider this…for every level 85 you already have, you’re 4% complete. If you start today and don’t have a single character in the game, you need to average 5.5 levels a day for the year to succeed. Now, either you further believe I’m insane, or you’re warming up to the idea. So let’s roll with the latter part and presume you’re going to give it a try. Here’s the guidelines:

All toons must be on a single account. Creating a second (possibly trial) account just to succeed at this seems a bit silly I know. But just putting it out there. **edit** The spirit of this rule was to avoid someone rolling 100 level 20’s and going from there. As such, it’s been errata’d to be “no more than 50 toons.”

All EXISTING toons count towards the goal. That basically means we will all start at different stages. This isn’t a contest, so there’s no goal to get there first. As such, there’s no penalty for however much leveling you’ve done to this point.

Death Knights!!! I know what you’re thinking…roll 37 Death Knights and you reach your goal. That’s cheating though. To curb that, you receive full level credit for your highest level Death Knight (if you have 4 at max level, one gets credit). Any others you roll are reduced by 50. I know they start out at 55, but the way I see it you could hit level 10 at least twice in the time it can take to finish the DK start zone, so there isn’t a full penalty if you want more Death Knights.

Please do not include levels granted from the Recruit-A-Friend program in your total.

All 10 classes must be represented at least twice. It’s impossible to do this with less than 20 characters, so I don’t think the request is that absurd…no matter how much you hate Rogues.

The 10 races as of Burning Crusade (now part of default WoW) must each be represented at least once (not everyone has Cataclysm, and the new start zones can take a long time).

Inform me of one character, as kind of the captain of your team (for example, Tum’s mine). Also, your characters. I don’t need names/servers necessarily as I respect your privacy. However a list of race/class combos and their levels is a reasonable request (i.e. “Goblin Rogue #2 is 44, Troll Druid now 71, Human Mage level 2…ugh, hate Mages”)

Be willing to update me on your progress. Even if it’s to say you’ve resigned from the challenge. Even if it’s just monthly. I’ll be posting my own progress and would like to be able to include everyone else taking part as well, with a relatively accurate update.

Again, this isn’t a contest. There’s no prize for getting there first, or last. It will be quite an accomplishment no matter what and the fun will be cheering each other on along the way. Unless I’ve scared each one of you off. In that case, please still cheer me. I’ve placed the finish line, and now my journey begins…

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38 comments on “2012: Year Of The Level”

Just to clarify… If I have two Death Knights, one at level 85 and one at level 61, I get 85 + (61 – 50) = 96 points?

Because the Cataclysm races aren’t required to be represented, am I safe in assuming that if Mists of Pandaria comes out in 2012, Pandaren and the Monk class will not be *required* to be represented (but can of course be used if one buys MoP)?

Regarding races and classes, I specifically excluded Pandaren and Monks because there’s no guarantee of it this year (but highly likely), as well as the fact that some might not buy the expansion and that hardly seems fair. Basically, I didn’t want to create handcuffs. But if the expansion does come out, you’re feel free to work it in to your total however it benefits you. :)

You have a great idea here JD, Well put! I wish everyone Good Luck on leveling, I don’t think I will be able to join though since I have things to do besides playing WoW. Work is always in the way and some other real life stuff. but I will help promote this event as well. To get everyone participated for sure! =) thanks for sharing your great idea! Take care hon. =)

If the announcement for additional character slots had been to lift the server limit so that I could have them all on one server, I would totally be on board for this. After all, I’d only need 22 max level paladins to achieve it! (This accounts for all my various other alts)